Just got Blink HQ installed, have a couple of questions

[hmmwv]

Had my Blink HQ installed over the weekend, it seems to be a great deal as the entire $499 purchase price will be paid for by our local utility company's rebate (PSE), and my only out of pocket is $60 of shipping and tax. The charger looks great and appears to be well built, I'm pretty happy with it but I just got a couple of questions.

First is compare L1 with L2, is one considered more "harmful" over another? I always thought the faster it charges the more damage it'll do to the battery, but again having the battery constantly in a "charging" state for 15 hours probably has some consequences too.

Second I know Blink marks the Ethernet port under the HQ as for diagnostics only, has anyone figured out whether the unit can potentially be network capable in the future? I was surprised to find out we don't have a time of the day based electricity rate here in King County, the nice delay start feature on the charger has become useless.

[Levenkay]

Even 6.6KW L2 charging is a charging rate of about C/4, which I think is considered pretty light duty as far as rechargeable batteries go. I don't think that stress from charging will be anywhere on the radar for battery longevity concerns (how long the battery sits at high states of charge is far more important). The main differences between L1 and L2 charging are that a) the resistive losses in all the wire and connections are more or less the same (assuming the same current levels) for either supply voltage, and so represent a larger portion of the total supply at 120V vs. 240 (so 240V charging is more efficient), and b) the LEAF's brains are allegedly not sophisticated enough to operate the onboard charger's cooling pump only as needed, so the pumps run all the time. Even if constant cooling were truly needed, the mere fact of running the pumps for the entirety of a charging session that has to take twice as long on 120V uses more energy than running the pumps for a 240V charging session (again representing an efficiency advantage of 240V charging).

As far as network capability goes: Be thankful that Blink elected to exclude it.

And I don't understand why anyone would use an EVSE's timer in lieu of the car's end-timer anyway, even if there were time-of-use rates. If the EVSE were networked into the utility for "smart grid" load balancing, that would be different, but I don't think the utilities are anywhere close to that.

[hmmwv]

Thanks for the reply, I guess I shouldn't worry about L2 charges at all then, using the charger for a few days I have to say I love it, it works great while being stylish. I do find myself use the time delayed feature though, so that it only starts charging at around 3-4 AM so when I get up at 7 I'm good to go and the car doesn't have to sit at 80% all night long.

[desiv]

I do find myself use the time delayed feature though, so that it only starts charging at around 3-4 AM so when I get up at 7 I'm good to go and the car doesn't have to sit at 80% all night long.

Same here..
I've looked at the thread involving programming the Leaf timers..
Like the fact that I don't have to hit the timer override button to charge...

So, I do the same, I use the delay feature..
Easy, no mess. Yes, it's only 2 hour increments, but that's close enough..

Wondered about the Ethernet port myself (Assuming it's ethernet and not RJ45 serial or something), but haven't looked at it.. Might be a fun project for the raspberry pi someday..

desiv

[davewill]

...As far as network capability goes: Be thankful that Blink elected to exclude it.

And I don't understand why anyone would use an EVSE's timer in lieu of the car's end-timer anyway, even if there were time-of-use rates. If the EVSE were networked into the utility for "smart grid" load balancing, that would be different, but I don't think the utilities are anywhere close to that.

I MUCH prefer using my Blink's timer. After all I only want the timer at home. If I use the one in the car, I have to fiddle with it every time I charge anywhere else. By using the Blink's I can just plug in. As far as the network capability, I really appreciate being able to access my charging history on the Blink website. Always been a plus. There was the fun of the charge rate fiasco, but Blink was very good about resetting mine to 30a after I replaced my handle. (plus the service menu is easy to use to override, anyway)...and you can always just disconnect if you don't want it.

It seemed odd to me that Blink would just stop supporting the network functionality in the new units.

[hmmwv]

For me I'd like to have networking function so I can log how much juice I have pumped into the Leaf, other than that I don't have to remote control it to do anything.